Union’s Frozen Four berth in Philly a homecoming for several Dutchmen

Members of the Union hockey team stretch during team practice for the NCAA men's college hockey Frozen Four tournament Wednesday, April 9, 2014, in Philadelphia. Union faces Boston College in a semifinal match on Thursday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

PHILADELHIA >> Cole Ikkala has called plenty of places home. Born in Denver, Colo., Ikkala and his family have thousands of miles under their belts thanks to Ikkala’s father’s career in retail.

The stops along the way have included California, Colorado, Alaska and the latest locale, McKinney, Texas. For his career, Ikkala added two years of junior hockey in Vernon, British Columbia.

Through all the moves and new places, there’s one place Ikkala calls home: The Philadelphia area.

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That makes next week’s trip to Wells Fargo Center, where the Union College senior forward and Downingtown West grad will lead his team to its second Frozen Four in three years, a very special homecoming.

“I lived in Philly for longest,” Ikkala said by phone Friday. “I lived there for seven years. … I guess it does feel like coming home. I have a lot of friends back there excited to see the Frozen Four.”

Ikkala is one of three Southeastern Pennsylvania connections on Union, the ECAC regular-season and tournament champions which will take on Boston College in the first national semifinal Friday night at 6 p.m.

Fellow forwards Max Novak and Nick Cruice also consider the game a homecoming of sorts.

For Ikkala, the Frozen Four presents his first chance to play at Wells Fargo Center. The honor is old hat for Cruice, though, who played in South Philadelphia with regularity during his high school days, piloting the Explorers to back-to-back state championships in 2008 and 2009.

“I’ve been playing there pretty much all my life,” Cruice said. “I have a lot of family and friends coming to the game, and definitely getting back to the city will definitely bring back a lot of memories I had from my childhood playing in that area.”

The sophomore Cruice has an added local connection through his youth days, when he played for Team Comcast in South Jersey. That’s the same talent factory that produced Boston College forwards Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, natives of Carneys Point, N.J.

Cruice is closer in age to the elder Gaudreau, BC’s leading scorer and one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award for national player of the year. The two also work out at the same gym in South Jersey.

Cruice is hopeful that familiarity — along with Union’s ability to limit the Gaudreaus to just one goal when the team’s last met, a 5-1 Union win in the NCAA Tournament East Regional last year — will give his club an advantage.

“It’s definitely going to be interesting,” Cruice said. “He tended to be able to put a lot of goals in the back of the net back in his youth days, but hopefully we can hold him down.”

Ikkala, who scored in last year’s win over BC, and Novak have the advantage of having been part of the 2012 trip to the Frozen Four in Tampa Bay, the first in Union’s history. Among a Frozen Four where the other three teams — BC, North Dakota and Minnesota — enter with 65 combined appearances, the experience on the squad is made all the more valuable.

“I think the biggest difference is that now we have a good handful of guys in the locker room that have just been there before, so it won’t be such a surprise, all the perks that you get from being one of the last four teams playing college hockey,” Novak said. “That experience is going to be invaluable.”

As a senior, Ikkala, who has just two goals and two assists this season, could make his biggest impact on Union’s title chances by how he helps convey the veteran message to the Frozen Four first-timers.

“It’s a role for me and a role for all the other juniors and seniors that have been there,” Ikkala said. “We’ve just got to pass along to these younger guys what it’s like. There’s going to be a lot of media, a lot of attention, but nothing really changes. It’s still just another game, and we’ve got to treat it like that. It’s big, but it’s just the next game on our schedule.”

Cruice, who has six goals and an assist, is one of the underclassmen trying to absorb the knowledge.

“We have tremendous leadership from the seniors and the juniors that were there in Tampa Bay,” he said. “Obviously I’m a sophomore and they’ve been giving me a ton of advice, like keep focused and don’t get overly excited and that it’s just another hockey game where there’s another two points on the line and another win in the big picture of a national championship. Our leaders are tremendous and just telling us to enjoy it and have fun.”

Novak, meanwhile, is one of the key pieces for Union’s title aspirations. He’s third on the team with 14 goals and sixth in points with 29. But he’s lit the lamp in each of the last five games, recording six goals and eight points in that span.

The key, according to Novak, has been steadiness in his approach.

“I try to do the same thing I’ve been doing all year, just use my speed and my poise,” he said. “It just so happens that most of the chances I’ve been getting have been going in. It just shows the kind of skill that I play with and the guys I get to play with on a daily basis.”

The 2012 Frozen Four trip, which ended with a 3-1 semifinal loss to Ferris State, may have seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But now that they’ve had that experience, got those nerves out of the way, they have a second chance to find the fine line between passively enjoying the experience and striving to make it a championship weekend.

“Obviously last time we fell short of a national championship, so this time that is our goal, and we just really want to accomplish that,” Ikkala said. “But you’ve got to slow down and enjoy it as well. We’re very fortunate to make it to the frozen Four, so you’ve got to enjoy it and remain focused on our goal there and on the hockey.”